Many people talk about it; some folks write about it, but unfortunately few people get serious about it. The “it” of course is committing time, money, and effort to doing a superior job developing front-line sales managers.
Well, as they say – there is no time like the present. Having spent a fair amount of time working with sales teams, we can think of no better way for a company to increase their revenue growth than to create and implement a substantive effort to improve the knowledge and skills of their front-line sales managers.
If you move from personal experience to research, the numbers are staggering. As a recent study by the Association for Talent Development (ATD) in Sales and Marketing Management found “only 11 percent of companies train their sales managers to a high extent, while 22 percent don’t train their sales managers at all. The same study found a significant positive correlation between the extent to which those managers were trained and the percentage of their reps who meet their sales quota.” (page 28, SMM)
So, with that “no time like the present thought” in mind, what are some ideas for the talent management of front-line sales managers?
Look forward, not backward. A significant first step in talent management requires knowing what skills need developing and who has shown some potential for developing those skills.
Here a common trap is to select the best salesperson to fill the management slot. As proven, again and again, the best athlete does not necessarily make the best coach. Although overlap exists, the skill sets of a high performing sales manager are different from those for a top salesperson.
So rather than selecting managers based solely on their skills at selling, think about their potential for the management tasks moving forward.
Revisit onboarding. Most companies pay a fair amount of attention to onboarding salespeople. Frequently that same attention is not extended to onboarding sales managers. In this case, don’t just rely on classroom training, try some of the following:
Provide an opportunity for the sales manager to spend individual time with the senior sales leaders to better understand the future direction and vision for the organization.
Consider assigning a senior front-line sales manager as a mentor for 30 days and provide some mentoring training for the senior manager.
Institute a systematic process for collecting and providing access to the best practices of new front-line sales managers.
Create ongoing and innovative training experiences. Training for sales managers should be ongoing, not an event. If sales managers only participate in one training experience every year, it is time to go back to the drawing board. When it comes to the innovative part, consider the following:
Make feedback a core part of any training.
Integrate customer issues and case studies.
Consider leveraging online learning modules in essential skill areas like coaching.
Summary. In today’s market, it’s more important than ever to be able to differentiate yourself by how you sell as well as what you sell. In that regard, the front-line sales manager is the pivotal job when developing a superior sales team. The probability of having a great sales team without investing in the development of a great group of front-line sales managers is close to zero.